The Credibility Gap on Drugs

Published: December 28, 1989

''Drug abuse and the crime, violence and human suffering it engenders is the most urgent and intractable problem of our time,'' thundered Mario Cuomo back in January. President Bush and others have similarly raised their voices in a year of public outcry over the crack epidemic.

But now it's December, and the New York Governor who came on like Rambo sounds more like Mister Rogers, and George Bush. Like the White House, Mr. Cuomo is not sure where to find the money for ambitious drug treatment plans. And he shrugged off a request from the state's Chief Judge, Sol Wachtler, for money to bolster a court system overwhelmed by drug crime.

Governor Cuomo thereby illustrates one new and growing cost of continued deficits at all levels of government: erosion of official credibility.

He said in January that he would turn the state's drug problem over to a new committee headed by Lieut. Gov. Stan Lundine. In its comprehensive report, the committee dramatically recommended state drug treatment ''campuses,'' serving 1,000 or more addicts at a time.

The concept, viewed with approval by Washington drug officials, could put New York in the forefront of a bold new strategy to fight drug abuse. But of course it would cost money - Mr. Lundine estimates as much as $400 million next year for the treatment program and other parts of his proposal.

Meanwhile, Judge Wachtler prepared an annual ''State of the Judiciary'' report, including figures that chillingly documented how courts were increasingly strained by drug-related crime. Since 1985, when crack invaded New York City, filings on felony charges have increased 76 percent statewide and an astonishing 288 percent in the city. Child neglect and abuse cases in the city's family courts have soared nearly 700 percent in the past 10 years, 232 percent since 1985. Judge Wachtler calls for a comparatively modest increase of 10 percent in spending on courts.

Mr. Cuomo, who does not have a veto over the judicial budget but does offer his opinion to the Legislature, shows little sympathy. ''These requests are not related to the realities of what revenues you have,'' he said of the judge's report. ''So they're essentially unrealistic.'' Cuomo spokesmen even suggest that the idea is somehow impertinent: Does the judge expect the Governor to reward the courts before the schools, say, or the hospitals?

But if drug abuse is in fact ''the most urgent and intractable problem of our time,'' it surely demands more than a routine brush-off in a tight budget year. And if Mr. Cuomo, or Mr. Bush for that matter, feels so strongly about drugs, why not raise the money with, say, a special tax dedicated to drug enforcement and treatment? Polls suggest that the public likes the strong anti-drug rhetoric - and doesn't like inaction.